SAMOA COMMISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 210, 6 September 1927, Page 8

SAMOA COMMISSION.

PERSONNEL ANNOUNCED. ORDER or REFERENCE. THREE QUESTIONS TO ANSWER. MEMBERS LEAVE BY TOFUA. (By Telegraph. — Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Monday. The personnel and the terms of reference of the Samoan Commission were announced by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. C'oates, this evening.

The members of the commission will be Sir Charles Skerrett, K.C.M.G., K.C., Chief Justice, and Mr. C. E. MacCormick, Judge of the Native Land Court.

The commission is to inquire into and report upon the following questions:

(1) Whether, having regard to the duties undertaken by the Government of New Zealand under the mandate, there is just or reasonable cause for the complaints and objections that have been made to the New Zealand Government and by petition.to Parliament concerning the administration of Western Samoa. ° (2) Whether the Administrator or the officials of the Administration have in any manner exceeded their duty in the exercise of the authority entrusted to them respectively, or have failed to exercise their respective functions honestly and justly. (3) Whether, having regard to the Samoan native customs and to the due maintenance of government and order in the mandated territory, it would be prudent and safe wholly to repeal and abrogate all power to require a Samoan to remove for a definite one place on the islands to another.

It is understood the commission will proceed to Samoa by the Tofua, which will leave Auckland on September 10.

The Commissioners. Sir Charles Skerrett has been Chief Justice of New Zealand since January, 1926. Hβ was one of the foremost barristers of the Dominion, and had been a King's Counsel since 1907. He was knighted in the last New Year honours. Mr. Charles E. MacConnick has been a judge of the Native Land Court since 1906 and is next in seniority to the Chief Judge of the Court. He was educated at the Auckland Grammar School and practised as a barrister in Auckland for many years. In 1912 he vrae Acting-Resident Commissioner in the Cook Islands and Judge of the Hi<»h Court in the Islands.